The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (not that one)

I had read Cloud Atlas, an earlier Booker-nominated novel by Mitchell.
Though I was slightly anxious about this book.
For starters, Cloud Atlas was a series of stories of a variety of genres and while Mitchell was clearly able to capture a variety of styles, at times they bordered on pastiches. And I seldom warmed to the characters.
But, no, this is an extraordinary book.
It depicts a Dutch East India Company settlement on the island of Dejima off Nagasaki, with the Dutch folk forbidden to step foot on any other Japanese land.
We see the culture clashes. Humorous misunderstandings as well as attempts to screw each other over.
We have seemingly ill-starred romance.
But it's fresh.
While the story is rooted in history and is inspired by real events, it almost feels like a fantasy novel, so alien does Dejima feel. This is meant as a compliment. And it's backed up that wonderfully mysterious title.
The title character, Jacob de Zoet, is a pastor's son and has been told by his fiancee's father to go and make his fortune in the east. So, unlike most of his compatriots on Dejima, he is not an out-and-out mercenary. He can be a bit holier-than-thou but he is a very sympathetic character to modern audiences. And, there is a rebellious streak as evidenced even in the early chapters by his smuggling scripture for his own personal use onto the island, in a time when Christianity was outlawed in Japan. That helps make him feel more human.

In many ways, it's a trilogy in one book with a strong story arc. An arc that twists and turns.
Also it's refreshing that the novel focuses on Dutch colonists. I've found myself reading too much historical fiction focussing on dodgy British colonial adventures, even if they're excellent like English Passengers.
We see the savagery and cruelty of the Dutch and Japanese and you know we'll go dark places though these are stunningly dark.
And yet, it's a very easy read. There's a lightness of touch but, good god, is it gripping.

Faulks on Fiction

As a rule, I tend to avoid companion books to TV series. Too often they're dumbed down versions of the author's other work.
Or are too reliant on your having seen the original show thus giving a feeling of someone blathering on about a great party you missed.
This however is a solid primer.
Sebastian Faulks, author of Charlotte Gray and Birdsong amongst others, groups together characters from British novels and uses them to explore not only the novel and their function in it but, sometimes, the genre.

Now I'm nowhere near as widely read as Faulks so I don't know how contentious some of his essays are. Whilst I found Chanu Ahmed's character in Brick Lane so off-putting that I gave up on the book, I can see why Faulks files him under the Snob category.  Certainly Faulks's pieces on Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Heathcliff were spot-on.
And I've since started reading Vanity Fair on the strength of this.
He doesn't out-right spoil but gives you enough of a taster for you to want to read the novel.

Also, in the James Bond chapter, there's a glimpse into his writing process as he describes how he wrote his Bond novel Devil May Care. Admittedly I haven't read that novel but his analysis of Bond is interesting.
The Sherlock Holmes section is also a somewhat affectionate look into the difficulties of writing genre fiction. (And there's an observation about Watson that I won't spoil here, but it is absolutely hilarious).

Once or twice, I feel that I'm not part of Faulks's target audience. He compares one character to an Archers character (suggesting to me we're aiming for middle-aged middle class readers here). However these are only fleeting.
All told, it's thought-provoking and made me want to explore (some of) the books covered that I hadn't read.
These can only be good things.

Submarine (book edition)

Having not seen the movie adaptation of Submarine, I came to Joe Dunthorne's novel cold.
It tells the tale of only child Oliver, enduring life as a 16 year-old in 1997 Swansea.
Yup, 1997 and not the '80s which I gather is when the acclaimed film is set.

The novel's a debut. Honestly, I think that shows a bit in the structural issues though overall it's entertaining and very readable.
The reviews compare it to Catcher In The Rye. I suppose that's short-hand for teenage-narrated adult fiction. Me, it reminds me a lot of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole books.
Oliver's a far more complex character than Adrian. Darker. More manipulative.
But the comparisons are obvious, and acknowledged in the book itself.
The 90s setting actually distinguishes the novel from the misadventures of Mr. Mole, especially given the frequent usage of the nascent interweb. (More so than I remember, but things might have been different in Swansea)

A fun read but it could have done with some tightening.

From the caravan's shelves: Flowers for Algernon

The other night I caught the trailer for Bradley Cooper's new movie Limitless and it reminded me in places of Daniel Keyes' classic novel Flowers For Algernon.

The novel consists of a series of progress reports written by Charlie, a test subject in a medical experiment.
Charlie has an IQ of 68 and undergoes a process to make him smarter as well as a test mouse called Algernon.

It raises ethical questions of the treatment of the disabled.
As his intellect sky-rockets, Charlie comes to feel superior to the nurses who treated him initially.
Halfway through, Charlie notices that Algernon is starting to decline, with the implication that his intelligence too will fade.

It's extraordinarily gripping and incredibly prescient. It doesn't read like it was written 40 years ago.
In many ways, it works as a science-fiction novel for people who don't think they like the genre. It's well-characterised, well-written, and firmly set in a recognisable world.

As well as inspiring the Oscar-winning film Charly (no, me neither), it also provoked a Broadway musical that on the strength of this trailer that seems to have missed the point somewhat. (To be fair this Michael Crawford song isn't too bad but that ad is horrific)

For many years, I used to say this was my favourite book but have since learnt that it's a difficult sell for some people.
But, hey, it's great and worth investigating.

World Book Night : will it work?

So, World Book Night (WBN) is intended to promote reading.
Maybe the collapse of Borders suggests a fading popularity.

I can see why an initiative like WBN has started.
Giving out free books >could< give people a taste for reading. (I remember at school being shocked by a friend who was surprised that I still read, in the same sort of tone as if I'd confessed belief in Santa)
Record labels put out sample tracks or bung free CDs into Sunday newspapers.

I do wonder about the titles though.
Now I've never read Lee Childs but I can see why he's there. He writes very successful thrillers that aren't (as yet) turned into movies. Maybe he'll act as a gateway drug like Alistair MacLean did for me.
Northen Lights by Phillip Pullman makes sense. It creates an air of wonder from the first page, which I've found surprisingly rare for fantasy.

But Cloud Atlas?
I adore Cloud Atlas. It's a series of six stories set from 1850 to the future and spanning genres, splitting at the half-way mark to be returned to in the book's latter half.
It gripped me when I first read it six years ago. Its two sci-fi stories are perhaps less successful. But the Russian doll structure means that you look forward to returning to the second half of the stories you're enjoying.
Yet I don't know if it'll reintroduce reading to people, particularly if it's thrust into their hands by strangers. It's not exactly accessible to a non-reader.

For this WBN, you've got volunteers giving out books in queues at chipshops, on Tube platforms.
It's wonderful.
The volunteers get to choose the books they dole out.
But looking at the official website, it seems like the Lee Child one's not proving too successful.
Instead Love In The Time Of Cholera is going like hot-cakes.
That might not convert new readers.
And brave is the soul who'll dish out The Reluctant Fundamentalist to a complete stranger.

I'm not wanting the list to be dumbed-down as such but I think there should be more entry-level books : Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Time-Traveller's Wife, White Teeth and Alan Furst's spy novels to complement Fingersmith, One Day and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time from this year's list.
Yeah, the Salmon...  film might be released next year but the email-based structure of the novel would show newbies what can be done.

So if the point is to inspire new readers, they need to make sure people are dishing out well-written books but the books need to be ones that'll enthuse and not daunt the reluctant reader.
And I'm not sure that's true of this year's list.